Andrew Welsh Imbrie (b. New York, April 6, 1921). Composer. He began piano studies at the
age of four with Ann Abajian, and continued with Pauline and Leo Ornstein. At Princeton
(BA 1942), he studied composition with Roger Sessions. After serving in the U.S. Army
(1942-6), he followed Sessions to Berkeley, where he received an M.A. in 1947 and the
same year was appointed an instructor. He postponed his teaching career to accept a
fellowship at the American Academy in Rome (1947-9), to which he later returned as
composer-in-residence. At Berkeley, Imbrie was rapidly promoted, becoming professor of
music in 1960, and in the course of his long association with the University he has
acquired the reputation of a distinguished teacher; his pupils have included Larry Austin
and David Del Tredici. In 1970 he was also named chairman of the composition department
at the San Francisco Conservatory, and in 1982 Jacob Ziskind Visiting Professor of Music
at Brandeis University. He has contributed articles to
Perspectives of New Musicand other periodicals. Imbrie has received many awards, including the Alice M.
Ditson Fellowship (1946-7), two Guggenheim Fellowships (1953-4, and 1960-61), a Brandeis
University Creative Arts Award (1958), and a Naumburg Recording Award (1960). In 1969 he
was elected to the National Institute of Arts and Letters and in 1980 to the American
Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has received commissions from the Naumburg Foundation
(for
Three Campion Songs), California State University, Hayward
(A
Song for St. Cecilia Day),
the San Francisco Opera
(Angle of Repose)and the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra
(Requiem: In Memoriam John H.
Imbrie 1962-1981).
[From
The New Grove Dictionary of American
Music
].

Professor Imbrie retired from the University of California, Berkeley in Spring, 1991. He
was named the Faculty Research Lecturer the same year, a prestigious campus-wide award.

Scope and Content

The collection is arranged into five series: biographical materials, pedagogical
materials, correspondence and notes, audio materials, and miscellany. The range of
materials are from 1955 to 1988, with the bulk of the materials in the late 50s to the
late 70s. There is a series of "Bio-Bibliography Annual Supplement" forms from 1955 to
1972, chronicling his compositional output and administrative involvement during those
years. The pedagogical materials include mostly class assignments from his years of
teaching, arranged by class numbers and years. There is also a body of materials that
students and others have sent to him, apparently for evaluation.